ROCKINGHAM — A Richmond County resident is trying to raise money to keep a local gun store in business.
On June 28, Leanne Moore started a GoFundMe page to support Robert Lee’s Rockingham Guns and Ammo.
The gun shop caught fire from an electrical short the night of June 28.
When Lee went in to survey the damage, it appeared that the fire started around the desk where his computer — which was destroyed — was sitting.
Soot covered the guns and the taxidermied animals on the walls. What ammunition Lee had in stock was ruined and a handgun in a broken display case had already started to rust.
Lee’s shop had been flooded several times in the past, including twice during Hurricane Florence, but he was always able to bounce back.
Immediately following the fire, Lee wasn’t as optimistic.
“I could always fight back against the water,” Lee told the RO the night of the fire. “I can’t fight back against this.”
Ten days later, Moore started the fundraiser.
“Some know him as a stern, opinionated, speak his mind type of man; while there are others of us who know both sides of him,” Moore said.
His “stern side,” Moore said, came from his years in the military.
“The other side is a caring, compassionate, philanthropic, selfless man,” Moore said of Lee. “A man who loves his community and strives to improve it as secretly as possible because he doesn’t want the recognition.”
She gave examples of his quiet community service, including decorating the Christmas tree on U.S. 220; collecting toys, food and money for county residents around Christmastime; and giving out random envelopes of money.
“He has spent much of his adult life collecting and selling irreplaceable antiques that were lost in the accident,” Moore said. “Without the help of our amazing community, there will be no rebound for Rockingham Guns & Ammo.”
As of July 12, the fundraiser had collected $230 of its $10,000 goal.
